Muscat

The greater metropolitan area of Muscat, known locally as the 'Capital Area', currently covers an area of approximately 1500 km². Since Oman's 'Renaissance' of modernization began in 1970, Muscat has seen an explosion of infrastructure development and urbanization, and, as has been the case in so many other cities worldwide, towns which were once distinct have been subsumed within the sprawling growth of the city's expanding metropolitan area. Pockets of dense residential and commercial districts are interspersed with undeveloped land.